Anglo-American Literature of the 17th-

20th Centuries

The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections has considerable holdings in Anglo-
American literature from the 17th century onward, with notable strengths in the 18th
century, Romanticism, and the Victorian and modern periods. Among the seventeenth-
century holdings is a complete set of the Shakespeare folios, and works by John Milton
and his contemporaries. Eighteenth-century highlights include near comprehensive
printed collections of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, and substantial holdings on
John Dryden, Samuel Johnson, Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele, William Cowper,
Fanny Burney, and others. Related materials include complete runs of periodicals, such as
the Spectator and the Tatler.

The Division's book holdings are also especially rich in the literature of the 19th and
early 20th centuries. The Cornell Wordsworth Collection, the second largest Wordsworth
collection in the world, documents the Romantic movement in detail. All the major
"standard" authors of the Victorian and modern periods, such as Charles Dickens, George
Eliot, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, et al., are well
represented. In addition, the library's holdings in Victorian fiction include scarce works
by many popular women authors of the time, such as Elizabeth Gaskell, Maria
Edgeworth, Marie Corelli, Ouida, and Helen Mathers. The collection also includes many
popular literary genres such as gift annuals, dime novels, railroad novels, and
yellowbacks, as well as the small literary magazine of the 1920s and 1930s. The modern
collection features strong collections of manuscripts and books by George Bernard Shaw,
Rudyard Kipling, Ford Madox Ford, Wyndham Lewis, and James Joyce.
In support of RMC's Human Sexuality Collection, the rare book collections feature
especially strong representations of literary works by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender writers, such as Oscar Wilde, Christopher Isherwood, Vita Sackville-West,
Radclyffe Hall, E.M. Forster, W.H. Auden, Ronald Firbank, Edith Sitwell, Elizabeth
Bowen, Jan Morris, and others. The collection's strengths in more recent British literature
include the works of Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, and Doris Lessing, to name
just a few.

American

The Division holds major collections of the papers and literary manuscripts of E.B.
White, Laura (Riding) Jackson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Theodore Dreiser, American theater
critic George Jean Nathan, and New Yorker magazine authors Frank Sullivan and A.J.
Liebling. Smaller manuscript collections for James Thurber and Theodore Roosevelt add
to the riches of the library's holdings. Each of these collections is complemented by a
collection of the author's published books.

The Division's book collection shows considerable depth in the literature of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. Most of the major authors of the period, such as Walt Whitman,
Henry James, Edith Wharton, Faulkner, Eliot, Pound, Dos Passos, Hemingway, and
Fitzgerald, are well represented. Besides these writers, the collection is notable for its
strength in the works of H.D., Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Stephen Vincent Benét.
Harlem Renaissance authors, such as James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston
Hughes, and Countee Cullen, are also well represented.

The book collection also shows notable strength in the literature of the 1950s to 1970s,
including comprehensive collections of the published work of Gary Snyder and Paul
Goodman, and lesser strengths in Beat writers such as Allen Ginsberg and William S.
Burroughs. The political writings in the Goodman collection in particular are
supplemented by the Division's social protest (1960s) holdings, which include the papers
and published writings of Daniel and Philip Berrigan, as well as extensive archival
holdings about student protest at Cornell in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The rare book collections feature especially strong representations of literary works by
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender writers such as Allen Ginsberg, William
Burroughs, Paul Goodman, Djuna Barnes, May Sarton, Gore Vidal, John Cheever,
Tennessee Williams, Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather, Rita Mae Brown, James Merrill, and
Audre Lorde. Related material in the Human Sexuality Collection includes extensive
collections of gay and lesbian pulp novels, and the records of the lesbian/feminist
publisher Firebrand Books.

The Division also holds collections of the books, manuscripts, and personal papers of
notable Cornell authors such as Alison Lurie, A.R. Ammons, and Diane Ackerman. This
brief description highlights only a few of the many strengths of the Division's vast
holdings, whose continued growth is ensured through judicious purchases and the
generosity of donors.
 William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23
April 1616)[a] was an English poet, playwright and
actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the
English language and the world's greatest dramatist.[2]
[3][4]
He is often called England's national poet and the
"Bard of Avon".[5][b] His extant works, including
collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays,[c]
154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few
other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays
have been translated into every major living language
and are performed more often than those of any other
playwright.[7]

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-

Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married
Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children:
Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime
between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and
part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the
King's Men. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he
died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has
stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his
sexuality, his religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by
others.[8][9][10] Such theories are often criticised for failing to adequately note that few
records survive of most commoners of the period.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613.[11][12][d] His early
plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best work
produced in these genres. Until about 1608, he wrote mainly tragedies, among them
Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in
the English language.[2][3][4] In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also
known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy
in his lifetime. However, in 1623, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, John
Heminges and Henry Condell, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio,
a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that included all but two
of his plays.[13] The volume was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Jonson
presciently hails Shakespeare in a now-famous quote as "not of an age, but for all time".
[13]

Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, Shakespeare's works have been continually
adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays
remain popular and are studied, performed, and reinterpreted through various cultural and
political contexts around the world.
The Seven Ages of Man
by William Shakespeare.

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players,T
hey have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
At first the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow.
Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths,
and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth.
And then the justiceIn fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part.
The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything
PUNCTUATION
Punctuation (formerly sometimes called pointing) is the use of spacing, conventional
signs and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading
of written text whether read silently or aloud.[1] Another description is, "It is the practice
action or system of inserting points or other small marks into texts in order to aid
interpretation; division of text into sentences, clauses, etc., by means of such marks."[2]

In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences. For

example: "woman, without her man, is nothing" (emphasizing the importance of men to
women), and "woman: without her, man is nothing" (emphasizing the importance of
women to men) have very different meanings; as do "eats shoots and leaves" (which
means the subject consumes plant growths) and "eats, shoots, and leaves" (which means
the subject eats first, then fires a weapon, and then leaves the scene).[3] The sharp
differences in meaning are produced by the simple differences in punctuation within the
example pairs, especially the latter.

The rules of punctuation vary with language, location, register and time and are
constantly evolving. Certain aspects of punctuation are stylistic and are thus the author's
(or editor's) choice, or tachygraphic (shorthand) language forms, such as those used in
online chat and text messages.

BROCHURE

A brochure is an informative paper document (often also used for advertising) that can
be folded into a template, pamphlet or leaflet. A brochure can also be a set of related
unfolded papers put into a pocket folder or packet. Brochures are promotional documents,
primarily used to introduce a company, organization, products or services and inform
prospective customers or members of the public of the benefits.

Brochures are distributed in many different ways: as newspaper inserts, handed out
personally, by mail or placed in brochure racks in high traffic locations especially in
tourist precincts. They may be considered as grey literature. [1] A brochure is usually
folded and only includes summary information that is promotional in character.
CHARACTERS OF BEOWULF
Principal Characters

Beowulf - The protagonist of the epic, Beowulf is a Geatish hero who fights the monster
Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf’s boasts and encounters
reveal him to be the strongest, ablest warrior around. In his youth, he personifies all of
the best values of the heroic culture. In his old age, he proves a wise and effective ruler.
King Hrothgar - The king of the Danes. Hrothgar enjoys military success and prosperity
until Grendel terrorizes his realm. A wise and aged ruler, Hrothgar represents a different
kind of leadership from that exhibited by the youthful warrior Beowulf. He is a father
figure to Beowulf and a model for the kind of king that Beowulf becomes.
Grendel - A demon descended from Cain, Grendel preys on Hrothgar’s warriors in the
king’s mead-hall, Heorot. Because his ruthless and miserable existence is part of the
retribution exacted by God for Cain’s murder of Abel, Grendel fits solidly within the
ethos of vengeance that governs the world of the poem.
Grendel’s mother - An unnamed swamp-hag, Grendel’s mother seems to possess fewer
human qualities than Grendel, although her terrorization of Heorot is explained by her
desire for vengeance—a human motivation.
The dragon - An ancient, powerful serpent, the dragon guards a horde of treasure in a
hidden mound. Beowulf’s fight with the dragon constitutes the third and final part of the
epic.

Other Danes

Shield Sheafson - The legendary Danish king from whom Hrothgar is descended, Shield
Sheafson is the mythical founder who inaugurates a long line of Danish rulers and
embodies the Danish tribe’s highest values of heroism and leadership. The poem opens
with a brief account of his rise from orphan to warrior-king, concluding, “That was one
good king”
Beow - The second king listed in the genealogy of Danish rulers with which the poem
begins. Beow is the son of Shield Sheafson and father of Halfdane. The narrator presents
Beow as a gift from God to a people in need of a leader. He exemplifies the maxim,
“Behavior that’s admired / is the path to power among people everywhere” (24–25).
Halfdane - The father of Hrothgar, Heorogar, Halga, and an unnamed daughter who
married a king of the Swedes, Halfdane succeeded Beow as ruler of the Danes.
Wealhtheow - Hrothgar’s wife, the gracious queen of the Danes.
Unferth - A Danish warrior who is jealous of Beowulf, Unferth is unable or unwilling to
fight Grendel, thus proving himself inferior to Beowulf.
Hrethric - Hrothgar’s elder son, Hrethric stands to inherit the Danish throne, but
Hrethric’s older cousin Hrothulf will prevent him from doing so. Beowulf offers to
support the youngster’s prospect of becoming king by hosting him in Geatland and giving
him guidance.
Hrothmund - The second son of Hrothgar.
Hrothulf - Hrothgar’s nephew, Hrothulf betrays and usurps his cousin, Hrethic, the
rightful heir to the Danish throne. Hrothulf’s treachery contrasts with Beowulf’s loyalty
to Hygelac in helping his son to the throne.
Aeschere - Hrothgar’s trusted adviser.

Other Geats

Hygelac - Beowulf’s uncle, king of the Geats, and husband of Hygd. Hygelac heartily
welcomes Beowulf back from Denmark.
Hygd - Hygelac’s wife, the young, beautiful, and intelligent queen of the Geats. Hygd is
contrasted with Queen Modthryth.
Wiglaf - A young kinsman and retainer of Beowulf who helps him in the fight against the
dragon while all of the other warriors run away. Wiglaf adheres to the heroic code better
than Beowulf’s other retainers, thereby proving himself a suitable successor to Beowulf.
Ecgtheow - Beowulf’s father, Hygelac’s brother-in-law, and Hrothgar’s friend. Ecgtheow
is dead by the time the story begins, but he lives on through the noble reputation that he
made for himself during his life and in his dutiful son’s remembrances.
King Hrethel - The Geatish king who took Beowulf in as a ward after the death of
Ecgtheow, Beowulf’s father.
Breca - Beowulf’s childhood friend, whom he defeated in a swimming match. Unferth
alludes to the story of their contest, and Beowulf then relates it in detail.

Other Figures Mentioned

Sigemund - A figure from Norse mythology, famous for slaying a dragon. Sigemund’s
story is told in praise of Beowulf and foreshadows Beowulf’s encounter with the dragon.
King Heremod - An evil king of legend. The scop, or bard, at Heorot discusses King
Heremod as a figure who contrasts greatly with Beowulf.
Queen Modthryth - A wicked queen of legend who punishes anyone who looks at her
the wrong way. Modthryth’s story is told in order to contrast her cruelty with Hygd’s
gentle and reasonable behavior.

LYRIC / EPIC
LYRIC - of poetry) expressing the writer's emotions, usually briefly and in stanzas
or recognized forms.

EPIC - a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the
deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation.